Opposition to Common Core rising

Common Core, a new set of national education standards, has generated a great deal of debate.

That is especially true in Louisiana where the governor and the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education are suing one another over whether or not to use the new test, known as Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

National polls have found that opposition to Common Core is rising but it comes as little surprise to educators.

Common Core is polarizing and a political issue, the polls show. Not many people have so-so feelings about it. Most people are either for Common Core or they’re against it.

But few are opposed to increasing education standards.

One poll by Education Next, which describes itself as “a quarterly journal which bases its editorial policy on the premise that the education sector is ripe for major change and reform,” shows that while a majority of respondents still support it, more of the people polled nationwide expressed dissatisfaction than did a year ago.

EdNext found that 53 percent of the 5,000 respondents to its poll support Common Core, down from 65 percent a year ago. The poll shows 26 percent opposed Common Core this year, double the percent from last year.

But that’s still a two-to-one ratio in favor of Common Core.

People with no opinion remained about the same, 22 percent in 2013 and 21 percent this year.

A Gallup poll, sponsored by PDK International, a teacher fraternity, says a majority of the 1,001 people polled oppose Common Core.

But there’s an interesting factor that pollsters discovered.

It’s the name “Common Core” that people don’t like, probably because they have heard people on television or their friends talking bad about it, not necessarily from personal knowledge.

“The words ‘Common Core’ elicit greater antagonism than does the concept of common standards itself,” the EdNext poll analyst said.

When instead of saying “Common Core standards” the pollsters just said “standards,” with the same question, approval jumped to 68 percent among all respondents, Democrats and Republicans alike.

The pollsters concluded that “Common Core” is a “tainted brand.”

Another factor was that only 43 percent of the public respondents, but 89 percent of teachers polled, said they had heard of Common Core before they took the survey.

The polls show there’s a definite political split. Republicans were far more against Common Core than were Democrats.

The EdNext poll shows Republican approval dropped from 57 percent to 43 percent in a year’s time, while opposition grew from 16 percent to 37 percent.

Democratic support lagged only slightly, 64 percent to 63 percent since 2013 but opposition grew from 10 percent to 17 percent.

Regardless of party, though, more people supported Common Core than opposed it.

The biggest jump in the EdNext poll was among teachers polled. In 2013, 76 percent of teachers favored Common Core. This year, only 46 percent gave it an A.

Last year, 12 percent of teachers opposed, but this year, it jumped to 40 percent.